


Wither Thou Goest

by RedStarFiction



Category: Outlander & Related Fandoms, Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-24 04:21:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9700784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedStarFiction/pseuds/RedStarFiction
Summary: Hi, Can you please write something about Claire comforting Jamie and maybe talking to him when he is asleep a bit like he talks to her in the books. Thank you!Hi Anon, Thank you for your message! I hope this is the sort of thing you had in mind. xxx





	

Claire watched Jamie from beneath her lowered lashes, she did not want him to know she was awake when he had clearly tried so very hard not to wake her.

The fire was drifting to embers but a faint red glow still emitted from the hearth, enough to make out the lines of his body against the soft blue velvet of the bouji chair. He was naked and Claire could see the red hairs that usually lay flay against the slope of his thigh standing rigid. The room was reasonably warm, as was to be expected for late May and Claire felt her pulse quicken as she realised that he must be afraid.

“Dinna fash Sassenach, I’ll be well soon.”

His voice was a soft rumble in the silence of the near darkness, giving her the option to continue to feign sleep should she wish to.

Claire pushed herself up onto her elbows and thumbed a tumble of hair back from her face

“What’s the matter?”

“Just a feeling, lass. Nothing more.”

One of the pine logs in the fire cracked and a few small sparks shot upwards. Claire wrapped her arms around her knees and waited for him to speak again.

When Jamie remained silent she slowly pushed the blankets back from her lap and got out of bed crossing the room, her bare feet soft against the hardwood flooring.

“Dinna touch me, please.”

She had been reaching out to him but her hand stopped in mid-air and hovered uncertainly.

“Jamie, please tell me what’s wrong. Was it a dream?”

His face was turned away from her as Claire studied his profile intently, looking for any clue as to what it could be that had driven him from their bed. His cheeks were dry and his eyes, fiercely locked on the burning wood and tendrils of smoke rising from it, were clear and alert.

“No not a dream … I …”

He turned to her then and a small smile, devoid of humour, curved his lips

“I woke up and didna ken where I was. I didna ken this room, nor these hands,”

He held his hands up before his face in illustration and Claire gently reached out and grasped his fingers within her own.

“I didna ken who I was, mo nighean donn.”

He shifted his gaze to her, blue eyes wide and troubled with a confusion that he could not name.

“I kent who ye were, but no’ your name and I didna trust myself no’ to crush you to me if I stayed beside ye, so I lay down on the floor and counted the wood grains I could feel beneath my fingers until I came back to myself.”

Claire gently sank to her knees and placed her free hand delicately on his leg, rubbing the long shin softly before making her way around to the sculpted muscle of his calf.

“That sounds like a very acute anxiety attack.”

She said and Jamie snorted

“I thought they were the ones where it feels like I have run until I canna breath and my heart is about to burst in my chest.”

“They come in different types.”

Claire explained gently and Jamie nodded.

“This one wasna so bad as the other type, I wasna frightened, only a bit dazed.”

“That’s something.”

Claire offered him a small smile and he squeezed her fingers gently.

“Aye it is.”

“Come to bed, Jamie.”

Claire stood and slowly urged her husband to his feet. She pulled back the blankets and waited for him to settle onto his back before carefully tucking them up around him, being sure not to pull them too tightly. Settling herself in beside him, she held out her arm and smiled

“Come lay your head, man.”

For a moment she thought he would refuse, but slowly, like a cat uncurling from sleep, he rolled towards her and placed his cheek against her breast with a contented sigh.

“Bree used to lie like this, you know. When she was little and not feeling well or just having trouble sleeping.”

“I can see why. Ye are a great comfort Sassenach, it is like knowing that I am in a completely safe place and that no one can find me unless I choose to be found.”

Claire had not expected him to explain it as such and found that she had nothing to say in response. The thought of Jamie feeling exposed and vulnerable made her heart ache with sorrow but if she was able to offer some small glimmer of comfort in the confines of their bed, then that was something. Claire smoothed his hair back and shrugged, twining her legs with his beneath the covers and stroking her hand down the welted scars of his back with a rhythmic movement. Up and down, Up and down …

“Scooch down, Sassenach. Let me hold ye so.”

Jamie murmured beginning to pull away but Claire’s arms only tightened around his shoulders.

“Stay right where you are. I like holding you.”

She scolded and Jamie grinned, she felt his cheek curve upwards against her chest and kissed the crown of his head.

“Aye, but I like holding ye too and if I fall asleep like this, I’ll give ye a numb arm.”

“It’s only my left arm and I have you to guard my left side anyway.”

She joked but Jamie’s arms tightened around her protectively

“I protect all of ye, mo Sorcha. For you are my home, my heart and the carriage of my very soul.”

His voice was thick with sleep but sure and clear all the same

“I am better off lost, if I do not have you Claire.”

 

Claire remained awake, stroking his back, and gently smoothing his hair for some time after Jamie’s breathing had quietened to the sound rhythmic snores of a deep slumber. On impulse, she touched the corner of his mouth and instantly felt him smile against her, that sweet little smile that she did not need light to see for she knew it as surely as she knew the colour of his eyes and the touch of his hand.

 

“I protect all of you too, you know.”

She whispered

“And I will continue to do so with my very life, James Fraser, until my time is done and,”  
She paused, swallowing  
”I will never leave you again. Wither thou goest, I too shall go. I promise.”


End file.
